Engaging the Grand Challenge of Extreme Economic Inequality in the Classroom

Many faculty and schools of social work have not yet developed courses germane to the twelve Grand Challenges. This Workshop provides the case example if Extreme Economic Inequality.

The workshop will present economic data that describes the magnitude of income inequality in the United States as compared to other industrialized nations. It will discuss how fifteen different subpopulations are particularly harmed by income inequality, including persons of color, seniors, children, disabled persons, immigrants, single mothers and women, seniors, and white rural persons.

The workshop will discuss six causes of extreme economic inequality including poverty, lack of social mobility, high levels of discrimination, lack of hope, insufficient medical/mental health services and insufficient government resources to fund sufficient social investments. Data collected by international agencies and scholars document that the United States spends far less on these investments than many other industrialized nations.

The workshop will use the syllabus of its leading presenter to discuss how faculty can develop courses on income inequality. It places income inequality in an historical context drawing on work of economic historians. It provides readings that discuss how the United States has swung between periods of relative income quality (1750 to 1920, 1933 to 1982) and periods of relative income inequality (1860 to 1931 and 1983 to the present). The class discusses why these pendulum movements have occurred. It hypothesizes what political and economic forces could initiate another period of relative income equality. The class discusses why and how civil rights and social reforms were disproportionately enacted during the period of relative equality from 1933 to 1982 but received less attention subsequently.

The workshop identifies 27 kinds of proposals that could reduce economic inequality by redressing one or more of its six causes. It will discuss practical tools that students can use to develop policy briefs that describe evidence-based strategies. It will discuss strategies for funding these strategies in a nation that diverts major resources to tax breaks for wealthy persons, private health insurance companies, and military forces. Three doctoral students (five minutes each) will describe evidence-based policy briefs they developed in my doctoral course on Extreme Economic Inequality.

Attendees of the workshop will receive handouts and a complimentary copy of the workshop leader's book on Extreme Economic Inequality, titled Decreasing Extreme Economic Inequality by Attacking Its Six Causes (Cognella Academic Publishing, August 2017). It will ask how social workers can assume leadership roles.

This workshop will encourage discussion and brainstorming. It will discuss how to link Grand Challenges that are closely related to one another, such as ones closely related to Extreme Economic Inequality including Smart Decarceration, End Homelessness, Build Financial Capability for All, and Achieve Equal Opportunity and Justice.